Washington, DC - The American College of Physicians - American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation (ACP-ASIM Foundation) will convene a one-day Health Communication Conference, Health Care Communication: A Key to Quality, to be held at the National Academy of Sciences on October 22, 2002. The conference, co-sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), will be an opportunity for experts from across the spectrum of the health care system, from patient to physician to third-party payer, to share their experiences with health-related communication and suggestions for improvement.

The first major activity of the Foundation's ten year Health Communication Initiative, the conference will focus on how communication enhancements can improve both the quality of care and health outcomes, with a particular emphasis on the needs of people with chronic disease. The conference will address both interpersonal and health care system communication, as well as the critical and expanding role that technology plays in all aspects of health communications today. Leaders in health care, health care communication, and technology will offer visionary models, potential solutions, and promising approaches for consideration.

The topics to be addressed during this one-day event include:

Both the Patient's View and the Physician's View of the current problems of Health Care Communication

The Academic, Public and Private Sector Models of Health Communications

Financial Obstacles to Improving Health Communication - from both the Clinician's Perspective and the Payer's Perspective

Cultural Considerations to Communication about Health

New Technology Systems to Improve Communication within the Health Care System

The Potential of Information Technology to Address Communication Issues

This important event will bring together experts in the field to present findings on state-of-the-art thinking and practice in health communication. The conference will begin with remarks from Daniel D. Federman, MD, MACP, Senior Dean for Clinical Teaching at Harvard University School of Medicine and William W. Stead, MD, Associate Vice Chancellor For Health Affairs and Director of the Informatics Center at Vanderbilt University, they will be followed by a slate of well-known specialists who will discuss problems and possible solutions in their particular areas of expertise. The conference will conclude with a presentation by Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, FACP, Professor & Chair, Department of Medical Informatics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. For registration information, visit http://foundation.acponline.org/healthcom/hcc.htm to learn more about the conference program.

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